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Scanning_Anomaly
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Yet another clueless user needs help with addons!
« on: December 27, 2003, 10:26:52 am »

Hello, all!  

I found the UQM project by happenstance and have been playing my favorite childhood game again and again, much to my fiancee's dismay.  I found the Remix addons and gleefully installed them!  Grin  Only to find they don't work.  Cry

I have put the (still zipped) files into my contents/packages/addons directory, in a new directory called 'uqmremix'.  In the command line to start the game, I added the line '--addons uqmremix'.  And if that wasn't enough, I also downloaded the uqmloader and used it to add the uqmremix addon, which it did.  

However, when I start the game, the first line of text says:

"Warning: There is no 'packages/addons' directory in the content directory.  --addon will be ignored."

I've checked and these directories DO exist.  I've even erased them and hand-made them again.  I've also used the -n command (and uqmloader) to tell the game to use the content directory, just in case, and taken that line out, also.  Nothing works.  

I assume I'm doing something incredibly basic, something so stupid that we'll all have a nice laugh about it, you know, after someone tells me what it is and I stop trying to remove the walls with my fists.  Anyone?  Please?

Thank you, all!
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meep-eep
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2003, 11:21:13 pm »

Does it find the rest of the game ok? If you've explicitely specified a content dir too, it might have something to do with bug #492, which is present in the 0.3 version.

Also, are you sure you spelled the directory name correctly? ("addon" instead of "addons" perhaps; that happened to me before).

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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2003, 08:12:16 am »

It PLAYS the rest of the game all right, but every time I've played it the game gives me several error messages:

"Warning: %APPDATA% is not set.  Falling back to %USERPROFILE%\Application Data.
Warning: %USERPROFILE% is not set.  Falling back to ..\Application Data for %APPDATA%."

It says this three times before loading.  I didn't mention this because, well, it's always said this, it's very hard to see what it says because it loads so quickly (I had to start and cancel the game about 10 times to write all that down) and it's never caused a problem for these warnings to be shown.  Does this make me even more clueless?  :-/

The name of the directory is, indeed, 'addons' with an -s.

I looked at the bug you mentioned, meep-eep.  I'm not good with computers, but it seemed to say that the game's path should not include any spaces.  I changed the path to c:\games\uqm\content\packages\addons.  Still no luck.  Sad   The problem persists regardless of whether I have an explicit content directory or not.  

I should say that I am using the 0.3 version on a Windows ME platform.  The game works just fine - some minor scripting bugs (like saying 'no reward is needed' to the Umgah and having them reply 'yes, yes, a big reward!  But what?' Wink ) but I'm just so happy to see SC2 again after all these years...kudos to everyone on the project!



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Mark Vera
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2003, 10:19:14 am »

When I made the Loader I had some similar problems as well. Probably due the bug Meepeep mentioned (?). Even though the Loader should work from any directory, I'd suggest you put the Loader into same directory as the uqm.exe is and don't use custom content directory (empty the content directory path). Loader will show all addon packages automatically and load all of them by default. So basically if you use Loader, you can just put addons into right directory and start uqm through the Loader.
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2003, 01:11:06 pm »

Sorry, Mark Vera, but I already tried the loader.  It finds the addons (both remixes) and promises to load them.  Then, when the game is loading, it gives me the same error message - directory not found.  It's good to know it can find them, however.

I haven't tried any other addons, but I suspect I'd get the same error.  The first thing I tried was to unzip the addons, then try the original zips again - no luck.  Now I'm seeing if anybody else has encountered the same thing.  
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Deep-Jiffa
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2003, 03:36:54 pm »

As far as I know, you are the only one with this problem, but you are not alone! Grin You said you tried the loader, but you didn't say you tried putting the loader in the folder where uqm.exe is! Try that. If it doesn't work, try other addons. If they work, the music addon is fucked up.... If not well try reinstalling uqm, it might work.
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2003, 08:03:55 pm »

It should be possible to use a path with spaces in it, but due to the bug in 0.3, this doesn't work when you explicitly specify a content dir with '-n' or '--contentdir'
I'm not sure what the launcher does behind the scenes (whether it always supplies -n/--content-dir). I suggest you try without the loader. If it doesn't work that way, it won't work with the loader either. Change to the uqm dir which contains the executable, and type 'uqm --addon uqmremix'. If that doesn't work, it will get tricky to debug remotely. And it might even be fixed already in the cvs version. Maybe someone who uses Windows could release an unofficial binary you could try.

The APPDATA and USERPROFILE remarks are only relevant to the location where config and save files are located, and should be harmless.

As for Deep-Jiffa's remark, this has nothing to do with bad content packages. Uqm can't find the .zip file at all.

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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2003, 04:06:41 am »

Who knows?Anything can happen today, it might be a virus too.
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2003, 09:13:16 am »

Quote
It should be possible to use a path with spaces in it, but due to the bug in 0.3, this doesn't work when you explicitly specify a content dir with '-n' or '--contentdir'
I'm not sure what the launcher does behind the scenes (whether it always supplies -n/--content-dir). I suggest you try without the loader. If it doesn't work that way, it won't work with the loader either. Change to the uqm dir which contains the executable, and type 'uqm --addon uqmremix'. If that



Loader doesn't supply "-n" parameter if the content directory is set empty in the Loader (this is default). If there's a existing path (I'm not 100% if it did check existance of the path, if not I should add that) it will pass it in form "c:\this is\new path\" (including the "-marks IF the path contains spaces if I recall right - I did ask about the functionality of "-n" back then if you can remember Meep..).

Loader always scans the add-ons from the sub-directory of the directory it finds the uqm.exe (small bug in Loader, it should use the custom content directory if set). Means, <uqm.exe path>/packages/addons/. By default all the paths in this directory are listed as addons and added as individual --addon parameters automatically. It doesn't check if the addon directories contain any zip files, etc. (though you can view the content of addon directory through the Loader gui) It is assuming those are valid addons.

uqm.exe is first searched from the directory in which the uqmloader.exe itself is. If not found it will search the Uninstall registry values the uqm windows installer has made. The About page in the Loader has field you can see what parameters the Loader will give for uqm.exe and what uqm.exe it is using (if any). Also the parameter field has button "copy to clipboard", so you could use Loader just to build parameter list for your shortcut (or just run Loader with the /run parameter and it will omit the Loader screen and use settings set last time in Loader).
« Last Edit: December 29, 2003, 09:15:31 am by Mark_Vera » Logged

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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2003, 02:59:30 pm »

Thank you all for your continued patience.  

Meep-eep, I tried running it from MS-DOS mode in the directory and got the same error message - it just can't find the directory.  I'm looking forward to seeing v0.4, but I can wait for it.  It should only be a few months, right?  Smiley

Deep Jiffa, I'm going to take your advice and reinstall the darned thing.  I'm not worried about viruses - I have virus protection and it regularly scans itself (sounds dirty, don't it? Wink ).  But who knows?  It can't hurt, and maybe this time I'll install it somewhere easier to get to.  Wink

Mark Vera, I have version 0.3 of the UQM loader in the UQM directory.  It does find the addons, and when I hit info it tells me I have two files in that directory (the two remixes).  However, when I load the game with it, I get the same error message.  Sigh.  Sad
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2003, 03:00:50 pm »

Oh, say - a question.  It's sometimes hard to read the error messages before that screen disappears, and a few methods of loading skip it entirely.  What music would be easiest to spot if I play the game?  Is there a new music for regular space?  Hyperspace?  
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2003, 03:27:30 pm »

One more question.  As I sit here for the next hour and a half, it occurs to me that there should be a way for the UQM installation program to detect whether you already have the installation zip files on your hard drive, or at least in the same directory (I do!).  

Is there? Huh
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #12 on: December 29, 2003, 04:32:56 pm »

UPDATE:

I reinstalled the whole shebang.  Lo and behold - it works!  Cheesy

Why?  I'm not entirely sure.  However, I did do one important thing differently.  Last time, I was online but my browser wasn't so I didn't download the files automatically (it took me a while to figure out why) and I had to get them manually and install them manually.  This time I had my browser on and it downloaded each file.  

Now it works!  Glorious, glorious music!  Cheesy

Thank you everyone for your help.  I'm off to replay the game (I think I'll write a ship's log/hint guide this time).
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Re: Yet another clueless user needs help with addo
« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2003, 06:03:01 am »

I am glad it is working... No one listens to me here, only the smart one do Grin Tongue
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